Monday Memories - 3

The other day on my other blog I mention last year's Prom and the fact that we didn't do it up like most, i.e., we didn't make a lot of fanfare about it. We did, however, have something a little different cooked up. But she had to get the "group" together first. Taylor knew it would be her 2 best friends (her art teacher called them napoleon ice cream because one is a blond, the other a brunette and taylor a redhead) - that part was easy, but getting the guys was a bit of a challenge. Taylor's boyfriend asked one of his friends to go with the blond and another one ofher guy friends agreed to go with the brunette (he actually had a girlfriend who didn't want to go to the prom but she agreed to let him be in the photos to even out the numbers). Ok so all was well - 3 boys, 3 girls.
Now we had to find our location - she didn't have the traditional azaleas, flowering trees and grassy lawns in mind - she wanted rubble. My photographer friend had shot some portraits in an abandoned location downtown so T and I drove to check it out.
When he had shot there it looked like this...

and now looked like this...


That wouldn't work in high heel shoes. So, what now? She had a brilliant idea! She would use her old suitcases that she had been collecting from goodwill stores and do the photoshoot at a railroad track. "Yeah this will be cool". They could be walking the tracks, sort of like they're on a journey - destination to the next phase in their lives. We searched and search and found the perfect location.

And as an additional idea she wanted to do couple portraits - taken looking through a picture frame something like this.


Ok so I guess we were making sort of big deal out of it but anyway here's what happened.

Found the perfect dress, Vera Wang (highly marked down) in her favorite color, purple; found the perfect location and had the perfect small group, all willing for an adventure but... now they had an extra girl that didn't fit in (the guy brought his girlfriend - she made the even number odd) and... it was raining.
We drove down to the train tracks (about 20 mins) anyway hoping the rain would let up. My photographer friend was meeting us there. The rain did let up a little bit so we shot the "framed" photos. There was a building across the tracks that had some nice vines growing on it and the warm ochre color was great with the frames and the girls dress colors. The girls were getting worried about their carefully straightened hair - the mist and rain was causing curl and frizz.



aw what a gentleman - he gave her his coat
each of the couples did a photo similar to this and they were so cute

While shooting those photos in front of an old building a security guy drove up and told us we couldn't shoot there. This was not good. But we were determined to get some cool photos even if we couldn't do the railroad track idea. So I drove up the street to see what I could find. There was some sort of loading dock that I thought would be a good place to at least get out of the rain while we thought a minute, and as I looked at it I realized it would make a perfect "train station".

I loved the dark red door - perfect with the suitcases and their dresses (I liked how none of the girls were the traditional long gown types and how their dresses naturally worked well with each other - except for the extra girl).

The guys acted bored "waiting on the train" while the girls chatted
(sorry, but doesn't that one girl look out of place?)

So that is what we did. The young people created a story that they were on a great journey together, off to new and exciting adventures, new experiences - a new world they were about to embark on - college. The photos shoot was a lot of fun - the girls relaxed about their hair (you can see Taylor's change from straight to curly); they played with colorful dollar store umbrellas; they laughed and acted silly but we got some serious photos out of it too.


$1 doesn't buy you a very good umbrella - it broke right away


the serious photo - "waiting on the train"


the sweet couple shot

I think my friend and I got many interesting photos (I wish I could show you more) and the experience was one I doubt any of them will ever forget.
We finished up a little early - too early for them to head to their dinner reservation at The Geisha House, so they went to a local coffee shop, Octane, to kill some time. Of course I went home at this point but I was thrilled to have been a part of the photo shoot. Later T told me that at the coffee shop they had been having a little garage sale of sorts and moved it indoors because of the rain. There happened to be a straightening iron for sale - $3. Taylor bought it and the girls went into the bathroom and straightened their hair...

Now isn't that more exciting, and memorable, than this?

boring (we did take a few of these for the traditional parents - they just weren't on my camera)